When to ascend when starting out?

[CountZero]

I've seen various guides that say something like "Don't ascend until you have 400 heavenly chips built up"

Really? I mean, if I'm just starting out with CC, that means I need to basically let the game run weeks without ascending, buying upgrades and buildings along the way, without ever ascending.

Is this really the best way to start out? Just let the game run without ascending until I get over 400 heavenly chips?

[!?!]

Originally posted by Cruxin:

people saying a few hundred is a bit much, you know your cps increases exponentially right

As does the downtime inbetween being able to purchase anything meaningful at all.

[Cruxin]

Originally posted by !?!:

Originally posted by Cruxin:

people saying a few hundred is a bit much, you know your cps increases exponentially right

As does the downtime inbetween being able to purchase anything meaningful at all.

skill issue it's not that long

im not sure why you think ascending earlier would somehow help with that anyway

[Celestorius [FR]]

Originally posted by Cruxin:

Originally posted by !?!:

As does the downtime inbetween being able to purchase anything meaningful at all.

skill issue it's not that long

im not sure why you think ascending earlier would somehow help with that anyway

I bet it's a very early earning of time since you ascend and get some bonuses that speed up the game to get back where you were and get less frustrating for earning the other chips you had to earn normally before ascending.

It's a very early earning of time for sacrificing a bit more time later.

So it is not a good deal but it can be less frustrating since you can get some boost by ascending earlier than expected.

At least that's how i understand what he said.

[Celestorius [FR]]

That being said, for all of those of you who are wanting to know how to earn your firsts chips in the first run :

- the very 10 firsts are just horrible to get.
- then do your possible to get the upgrade that makes cookies' effect last double of time
- after that point you will unlock prism and lucky charm if you're patient by clicking on cookies and using the "hand of fate" skill (only when you see a cookie you use that skill then you click both cookies for maybe an impressive combo that can give you substancial trillions/quadrillions if really lucky).
- then you just spam forever that spell when a cookie is spawning and watch your CpS growing over time.
- Buy some buildings and the % CpS upgrades you can afford without using all your money (cause you need some for maximal bonus from golden cookies). At this point other upgrades are just useless since you only have about 10 buildings of alch lab/portals/time travel machines and other upgrades for the buildings after those ones aren't reachable before a very long time and will be useless since you will reach aanother type of building that will offer you so much more CpS that even double previous building can't contest at all.
- From now on, just repeat again and again the spell/cookie combo and buy every upgrade affordable / highest building you can get. Don't hesitate to wait some hours to get a new building. It really become worth it starting from prism.
- Finally watch your chips growing and making huge bumps when you click on cookie/spell combos. Some combos are just amazing and can award you with so many quadrillions that you can earn 10-15 chips if you're really lucky.

[!?!]

Originally posted by Cruxin:

Originally posted by !?!:

As does the downtime inbetween being able to purchase anything meaningful at all.

skill issue it's not that long

im not sure why you think ascending earlier would somehow help with that anyway

Yeah jeez I wonder how buying the heralds upgrade to get double cps and then double cps again from prestige could possibly help.
Making progress 3-4x faster in a slow progressing game, how does that help?
Better to just stay at x1 for days.

[Cruxin]

y'all realise you need hundreds to get stuff like heralds, right? saying you should ascend when you can afford that level of upgrades is literally agreeing with me and proving my point

[chonkasaurusrex]

Any ascensions after the first to unlock Legacy is beneficial and will speed up future gains. It doesn't take that long to get back after the first one. I started 51 days ago and have 32 ascensions (several were for Lucky 7 upgrades) and I'm in the 10's of trillions of chips stage from mostly idle play.

TL;DR: Just do whatever the upgrades basically earn themselves and most theorycrafting stuff is only if you REALLY REALLY care about nitty gritty.

[Blessed]

When I first started out, I read quite a bit on the wiki and tried to understand most of it. Over time as I played the game more vs trying to understand it, I realized everything has a purpose in game, they all help. Sure there are optimal ways to achieve certain outcomes sooner for example, but there is no real wrong way to play. There is no way to lose the game.

[Kunovega]

It really depends on how much you active play versus idle. If you're active, you can ascend at around 20-30 and then every time after that you can benefit from doubling your previous.

The guides that recommend waiting for 400+ is for casual, if you aren't active much.

If you play mostly idle it could take you weeks what it takes a few hours active to do

It's entirely up to you. But being able to buy some of the basics at 20 to 30 and then doubling with each ascension will catapult you much faster than any guides I've seen, but you will need to spend a few hours active with the game after each ascension, especially once you get the holidays unlocked

If you don't have the time to be active for a few hours, wait for a longer ascension, but if you're trying to accelerate, what happens is that each time you flip, it takes half the time to get back to where you were as the last time, and then you continue going at that rate until you are higher

By ascending every double, you decide your own pace.

If you can flip every 2 to 4 hours active, you can do it again and again, if you're waiting days or weeks to ascend, then it will take you that long before it's worth ascending again

Once you understand how the ascending bonuses stack on you, you realize that the game goes at your pace. If you want to be done in a year, you'll need to be putting in several hours a day, a couple days a week and ascending frequently. If you don't mind the game taking 5+ years, follow the guides

[Celestorius [FR]]

Originally posted by Kunovega:

The guides that recommend waiting for 400+ is for casual, if you aren't active much.

If you play mostly idle it could take you weeks what it takes a few hours active to do

Well, doing it by playing actively is what i'm looking for, when you say your firsts 400+ chips in few hours i'm REALLY curious to know how you proceed, what you do.

Actually there is no much to "play actively" except clicking on golden/wrath cookies. Or i mis something like i say from the very beginning of my posts.

So, can you maybe explain a bit more when in only few hours (wich means less than 24 hours) of active play you can get that crazy amount ?

Just with cookies clicked it's about 30 if you're lucky enough in a day of 10 hours of play.

[Kunovega]

Originally posted by Celestorius:

Originally posted by Kunovega:

The guides that recommend waiting for 400+ is for casual, if you aren't active much.

If you play mostly idle it could take you weeks what it takes a few hours active to do

Well, doing it by playing actively is what i'm looking for, when you say your firsts 400+ chips in few hours i'm REALLY curious to know how you proceed, what you do.

Actually there is no much to "play actively" except clicking on golden/wrath cookies. Or i mis something like i say from the very beginning of my posts.

So, can you maybe explain a bit more when in only few hours (wich means less than 24 hours) of active play you can get that crazy amount ?

Just with cookies clicked it's about 30 if you're lucky enough in a day of 10 hours of play.

Clicking the cookie, hitting the golden cookies, and later doing the holiday events. Using your spells, adjusting your garden, raising your dragon, evolving santa, etc. Also buying production and upgrades when you can. The more you unlock, the more mini games you have, the more there is to do, especially after an ascension where you need to rebuy and resetup everything.

Once you have have some boosts from heavenly upgrades, every time you ascend you come back and make cookies faster, your rate of cookies gets faster and faster.

It's not obvious until you read and understand more of the heavenly upgrades, but basically the longer you wait between ascensions the longer it will take to feel a benefit to the next one.

This really is more of a clicker than it is an idle game. And once you get into the higher tiers you'll be waiting on lucky streaks from clicking. But a few hours of paying attention, a couple of lucky buff streaks and you'll have made more progress in an afternoon than a month of idle waiting.

Just google combos and you'll start to understand, example:
https://www.reddit.com/r/CookieClicker/comments/ofxri0/the_easiest_ultracombo_a_thorough_and_mildly/

All I can tell you is the faster you figure out how to ascend, then aim for doubling that before you ascend again and you'll be going much faster than the guides that tell you to just "wait for X number"

[Celestorius [FR]]

Hum i see, but what you say in your post is by far not the very first ascend since you talk about dragons / events (depends on timing, so a lot of RNG if you don't start the game with special event) and clicking the cookie wich is not a big deal when you have no bonuses and didn't ascend yet.

So i understand well that with a couple of ascend you can do that quite easily but since you don't have some chips and already ascended few times that is not an option for the first one.

The link you gave asks for things you don't have as well when you didn't ascend so it's a good strategy for later but i hardly doubt you can do it for the first ascend since you won't get 100 mana max / a lot of trophies / upgrades / boosts that are quite necessary for applying it.

So i thank you for your strategy, i'll try it when i'll get at least some chips to get basical upgrades like dragon, for example.

[chonkasaurusrex]

FWIW: running an autohotkey script to spam click if you're away can significantly increase your production until you get to the point where you unlock the big passive upgrades. And every so often you'll have a golden cookie spawn where you left your cursor so you can get some surprise big buffs if you're out for a couple hours. I didn't swap to *full* idle until I unlocked the switch and veil. The early building for ascensions is a little slow, but if you go for a goal of getting 2-4 to start, then ascend, then wait for double and do it again, you'll eventually hit a point where your chips are going up by thousands instead of 1.

[Fire Angel]

I used to play until I got the Shimmering Veil. I don't play because I would loose my 60% bonus with one click.

Also, those red cookies are annoying so I would only be an active clicker if my grandmas are not angry.

[Kunovega]

Originally posted by Supergirl:

I used to play until I got the Shimmering Veil. I don't play because I would loose my 60% bonus with one click.

Also, those red cookies are annoying so I would only be an active clicker if my grandmas are not angry.

Shimmering veil only has value for when you don't have the time to tend garden and land combos. One good combo and a dragon flight will net you several months if not years of idle with the veil on.

Finishing the achievements while waiting with the veil on will take you about 5 to 10 years.

Being active even for just a few hours a couple times a week and you'll be done in under a year.

Originally posted by Celestorius:

Originally posted by Kunovega:

The guides that recommend waiting for 400+ is for casual, if you aren't active much.

If you play mostly idle it could take you weeks what it takes a few hours active to do

Well, doing it by playing actively is what i'm looking for, when you say your firsts 400+ chips in few hours i'm REALLY curious to know how you proceed, what you do.

I said 20-30 for first ascended, you seem to have misunderstood a large part of my post. The only place I mentioned 400+ was that the guides suggested waiting for that, which I was recommending against using.

Try actually reading what I wrote again.

Originally posted by Celestorius:

Hum i see, but what you say in your post is by far not the very first ascend since you talk about dragons / events (depends on timing, so a lot of RNG if you don't start the game with special event) and clicking the cookie wich is not a big deal when you have no bonuses and didn't ascend yet.

You skipped where I already mentioned first ascend:

https://steamcommunity.com/app/1454400/discussions/0/3421061982937708980/?tscn=1703934006#c3421063428075020638